impurvsinputWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: impur is a adjective, input is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“impur” is an adjective and “input” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,648
“impur” frequency rank
#46,237
“input” frequency rank
76885
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature impur input
Definition Qui n’est pas pur. Intrant.

Where the eye mixes impur and input

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
impur
5 ch
input

Why the eye confuses impur with input

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impur is \ɛ̃.pyʁ\ while input is \in.put\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

impur is recorded at frequency rank #30,648, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pyʁ\. input is at rank #46,237, tagged as anoun, pronounced \in.put\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 76885, this pair ranks #29,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of impur vs input

Shared letters: ipu. Private to "impur": mr. Private to "input": nt.

"impur" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "input" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • impurimmpur · imppur · impru · impurr · imupr · ipmur · mipur
  • inputinnput · inpput · inptu · inputt · inupt · ipnut · niput

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "impur" and "input" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "impur" is an adjective and "input" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "impur" or "input" show up more?
"impur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,648 in our French list, against #46,237 for "input". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "impur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "input" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "impur" and "input" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impute vs input". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #29,904 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list